caloosa, Alabama, for Negroes. For
a number of years the Southern white Baptists have contributed toward
Negro education. Other denominations have done the same. If these
people do not want the Negro educated to a high standard, there is no
reason why they should act the hypocrite in these matters.
As barbarous as some of the lynchings in the South have been,
Southern white men here and there, as well as newspapers, have spoken
out strongly against lynching. I quote from the address of the Rev.
Mr. Vance, of Nashville, Tennessee, delivered before the National
Sunday School Union in Atlanta, not long since, as an example:--
"And yet, as I stand here to-night, a Southerner speaking for my
section, and addressing an audience from all sections, there is
one foul blot upon the fair fame of the South, at the bare
mention of which the heart turns sick and the cheek is crimsoned
with shame. I want to lift my voice to-night in loud and long and
indignant protest against the awful horror of mob violence, which
the other day reached the climax of its madness and infamy in a
deed as black and brutal and barbarous as can be found in the
annals of human crime.
"I have a right to speak on the subject, and I propose to be
heard. The time has come for every lover of the South to set the
might of an angered and resolute manhood against the shame and
peril of the lynch demon. These people, whose fiendish glee
taunts their victim as his flesh crackles in the flames, do not
represent the South. I have not a syllable of apology for the
sickening crime they meant to avenge. But it is high time we were
learning that lawlessness is no remedy for crime. For one, I dare
to believe that the people of my section are able to cope with
crime, however treacherous and defiant, through their courts of
justice; and I plead for the masterful sway of a righteous and
exalted public sentiment that shall class lynch law in the
category with crime."
It is a notable and praiseworthy fact that no Negro educated in any of
our larger institutions of learning in the South has been charged with
any of the recent crimes connected with assaults upon females.
If we go on making progress in the directions that I have tried to
indicate, more and more the South will be drawn to one course. As I
have already said, it is not for the best interests of the w
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